Some of the top bluegrass bands on the Gulf Coast will perform at the annual Blakeley Bluegrass Festival Saturday, Oct. 6 at the state park near Spanish Fort.

“We have been doing either the Bluegrass Festival or a Country Music Festival for most of the past 18 years,” said coordinator Jo Ann Flirt. “The Bluegrass Festival is always on the first Saturday of October down in Washington Square under the oak trees.”

Mobile’s BayFest will also be held the same weekend but Flirt said she isn’t worried about a lack of attendance.

“The music [at BayFest] is quite different,” she said. “BayFest in the past has had a little bit of Bluegrass. Bluegrass people really want Bluegrass and are not attracted to the music that Bayfest seems to be promoting.”

Bluegrass, she said, “is a type of music that people around here appreciated and wanted to hear.”

The festival’s intention is also to help preserve the music.

Last year, the festival featured a competition among young Bluegrass musicians. However, Flirt said festival coordinators opted out of the competition and have gone back to traditional format of four bands under a schedule. However, the Alabama Gentlemen — who judged the top band in last year's event — will return for a performance.

“[The festival] is arranged in such a way that visitors can come in the morning and hear all four bands and then in the afternoon hear them again. Or they can come for half a day and hear all four bands,” Flirt said.

The festival will feature two sets each by Lock, Stock & Barrel, Whistle Stop, the McPhersons and Alabama Gentlemen beginning at 9:30 a.m. Park gates open at 8:30 a.m.

“What’s most significant about this year’s festival is that we have been trying for some time to make our schedules coincide with Tom Morley,” Flirt said.

Morley, a fiddler, will join Lock, Stock & Barrel for the opening set at 9:30 a.m. and again for a solo appearance at 12:30 p.m.

Morley has played with some of the best fiddlers in the business such as Buddy Spicher, Johnny Gimble, Kenny Sears, Woody Paul of Riders in the Sky and Aubrey Haynie.

“[Morley’s] outstanding, and we’ve been trying to get him here for several years,” Flirt said. “We’re just delighted he is coming.”

Mistress of ceremonies will be Gayle Decker. She and Kathy Dukes of the duo Wildwood also will entertain during the Bluegrass Festival.

Spectators can set up their chairs in the shade of centuries old oak trees and relax to continuous live music. Food and soft drinks are available from the Blakeley Park concession wagon at modest prices.

However, Flirt said spectators can bring in their own food and nonalcholic drinks. Spectators area also allowed to bring pets on a leash and televisions and radios with earphones in case they want to catch the big football game.

The first phase of Blakeley Park's new, modern campground is now open. Wilderness RV campsites with full utilities are available to musicians and visitors to the Bluegrass Festival this fall for the first time. An older campground is popular with overnight visitors with tents or pop-ups.

Admission to the Bluegrass Festival is $10 for adults, $5 for children 6-12, and children under six are admitted free. Credit cards are accepted for admission and camping fees.

All proceeds from the Festival go to the operations of the park. For more information on the festival go to blakeleypark.com or call 251-626-0798. For campground reservations call 251-626-5581.

“The Bluegrass fans really do love their Bluegrass, and the setting is beautiful,” Flirt said.

Blakeley State Park is located on Alabama Highway 225 about 4.5 miles north of its intersection with U.S. 31 near Spanish Fort.